Five Greatest Revivals That Shaped the Modern Church

The Church’s first great revival occurred on the Day of Pentecost, May 24, 33 A.D., when 3,000 Jews came to Christ. By 300 A.D., approximately 14 million people identified as Christians, and by 500 A.D., that number had grown to nearly 40 million.

Since the early 1700s, God has brought about several notable revivals that have significantly impacted Christianity. Here are five revivals that played a key role in shaping the modern Church.

1. The First Great Awakening (1725–1760)

Between 1725 and 1760, a series of revivals, known as the Great Awakening, spread throughout the American colonies. These revivals were led by influential preachers such as Gilbert Tennent, Jonathan Edwards, and the English evangelist George Whitefield. The movement reached its peak between 1740 and 1742.

At the same time, the Wesleyan Revival was taking place in England. Under the leadership of John Wesley, the Methodist movement flourished. By the time of Wesley’s death in 1791, there were 79,000 Methodists in England and 40,000 in America.

2. The Second Great Awakening (1801–1830s)

The Second Great Awakening began in 1801 at the Cane Ridge Camp Meeting in Kentucky, USA, where as many as 3,000 people were converted. The peak of the movement came in 1811, when approximately one-third of all Americans attended camp meetings.

By 1806, the revival had spread to Williams College in Massachusetts. There, during a thunderstorm, five students gathered in the shelter of a haystack to pray. Four of them committed their lives to becoming missionaries. This event, later known as the Haystack Prayer Meeting, marked the beginning of the American foreign mission movement.

3. The Prayer Meeting Revival (1857–1859)

This revival began as a small prayer meeting of six people on Fulton Street in New York City in 1857. It quickly spread throughout the world, becoming one of the most significant revivals in history.

Over the next two years, more than one million people were added to churches in the United States and another one million to churches in England and Ireland.

4. The Welsh Revival (1904–1906)

The Welsh Revival began in 1904 under the preaching of Evan Roberts. Within two years, 100,000 people were added to the Welsh Church. The revival’s influence extended far beyond Wales, leading to more than five million conversions worldwide.

As part of this same outpouring of the Holy Spirit, another revival broke out in 1906 at a mission led by William Seymour in a rundown building on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California. The Azusa Street Revival became the foundational event of early Pentecostalism, giving rise to the modern Pentecostal movement.

5. Modern-Day Revival in China

In recent decades, a remarkable revival has taken place in China. When the last missionaries left in 1953, there were only a few million believers in the country. By 1980, the number had grown to two million. By 2000, it had surged to 75 million.

Today, estimates suggest that there are over 100 million Christians in China, making it one of the fastest-growing Christian populations in the world.

These great revivals were not just historical events—they were mighty moves of God that transformed entire nations and reshaped the course of Christianity. Each revival began when a handful of people became desperate for more of God, refusing to settle for lifeless religion. They prayed, fasted, and sought the power of the Holy Spirit until heaven responded.

Today, we live in a time when darkness is increasing, and the world is in desperate need of a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit. The question is: Will we rise up and seek God for revival in our generation?

Revival does not come by chance; it comes when ordinary men and women hunger for the supernatural, when believers dare to cry out for the fire of God, and when the Church refuses to remain powerless. The same God who moved in Pentecost, in the Great Awakenings, and in Azusa Street is ready to move again—but He is waiting for those who will seek Him.

Now is the time to pray like never before, to hunger for holiness, to walk in bold faith, and to refuse to live without the power of the Holy Spirit. If revival could shake nations in the past, then why not now? Why not here? Why not through you?

Let us rise up and seek God for another Great Awakening—one that will shake this generation and usher in the greatest move of God the world has ever seen. The time for revival is now.